Mobile electronic devices are an integral part of modern life. Notebooks, netbooks, tablet computers, smart phones and other portable devices comprise more than half of all computers produced worldwide. People use them to communicate, work, relax, and study. The memory in these devices store large amounts of personal data such as contacts, photographs, videos, authorization information, and much more. Corporate computers also contain official correspondence and documentation, which may include trade secrets.
These mobile electronic devices are often targets for theft or robbery. Criminals can have various objectives: to gain access to a computer's hard drive, to sell the computer, or, rarely, to use it themselves. Portable devices are easily lost due to their size and the fact that they are constantly moved around by the user.
Society is faced with the critical issue of locating and returning lost or stolen devices. If mobile technology permits mobile devices to be identified centrally by network operators, then the architecture of Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other packet-switched transfer networks complicates the search for such a connected device.
Technology already exists that locates lost devices connected to the Internet using specially installed hardware or software agents. These modules communicate their location to the owner upon connection to the Internet.
The aforementioned technology has clear client-server architecture and stop functioning with the failure of one of the system components: client, server, or data transmission channel. Thus, if the operating system of the stolen devices is reinstalled or its hard drive or memory card is replaced, it becomes almost impossible to find the stolen device.
The present invention eliminates the described deficiencies of prior art by taking a different approach by which electronic devices are configured to search for lost or stolen devices in their networks. If a device is stolen and a detection agent necessary for a return connection with the server is blocked or removed, this device may be found by other devices, which will discover the lost or stolen device when it connects to the network.